


Little Sister

by Yalu



Series: Saving People [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 10:24:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3974614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's 2005, and Dean Winchester has a sister to save. Time travel fixit AU for Charlie. </p><p> </p><p>  <i>The dude dressed as Dr Sexy said, "Annie Tolkien, huh? When I met you it was Charlie Bradbury. Course, you were twenty-seven at the time."</i></p><p> </p><p>(a.k.a. LOOK, I FIXED IT)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Sister

**Author's Note:**

> Because _Dark Dynasty_ was the ep that broke me and NO. No way. Not accepting it.
> 
> Be prepared for lots of references to _Back to the Future_ and _Terminator_. And Star Wars... and the Hobbit movies and Firefly and MCU. Kind of everything, I think.

 

_October 2005_

 

It was a normal con (meaning nerdy _awesome_ fun with all the great nerds of nerddom and a Princess Leia she was totally giving her number to) right up until the dude dressed as Dr Sexy dropped into the other chair at her tiny table by the hot dog stand and said, "Annie Tolkien, huh? When I met you it was Charlie Bradbury."

She froze, teeth halfway through tearing a chunk off her hot dog. It was chew and swallow for an age or be disgusting and put it back on her plate with bite marks all over the place, so she went for chewing and looked at the guy. 

He was... wrong. Like not _wrong_ wrong, not the creepy kind of wrong you'd call the cops for, but he wasn't a con regular, that's for sure. He had the costume down but he was hiding the name tag and had the stethoscope stuffed in a pocket. And he was sad – like really, _really_ sad, and trying to hide it, and he was looking at her like–

Wait, what?

The guy smiled, sorta. "Course, you were twenty-seven at the time. After that you called yourself Carrie Heinlein for a while, but you still let me call you Charlie. Took two years of LARPing and you kicking my ass at _Final Fantasy_ before I heard of Celeste Middleton."

She sprang to her feet and backed up. "Dude, what the _hell_?"

He held up both hands, surrender. "I don't want to scare you," he said quietly. "You've got no reason to believe me, I know. Just take this, okay?" Slowly, so she could always see his hands, he picked up a wrapped gift about the size of a box set and put it on the table. "If you think I can fake these... well, thanks, I guess. But if you want to talk, I'll be here this time tomorrow."

And he backed off, hands up and open, and disappeared into the crowd still with that weird _look_ on his face, like... 

She couldn't figure it out. 

The present, when she picked up, that was easier. It was definitely DVDs; right size, right weight, right thumb-size depression in the middle of the back where the 'press to release' part was. But it wasn't a box set exactly, what with lacking a box, just a stack of DVDs. And, she had to tell herself, ~~probably~~ almost definitely not the One Ring or a bomb or anything. ( _The Ring_ , maybe.)

What the hell. She tore open the paper. 

_The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey._

_The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug._

_The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies._

Holy _shit_.

 

Dean fidgeted in his chair, checked his watch again and tried to remind himself that they _started_ talking at 2:23 yesterday but that wasn't when they finished. He didn't remember when exactly that was. She could just be late. And maybe she didn't check the time either and thought it was two thirty. He grimaced: The hot dogs would be cold by then.

He drummed his fingers on the table. She might not come. Better if she didn't, really. Talking to her at all was risky, she'd be safest if she stayed far far _far_ away from anything supernatural. She was going to have a long life this time around if he had any say in it, and he _did_. This Charlie– Celeste, Annie, whatever, wasn't going to become a hunter, ever, and she would _never_ end up lying bloody in a bathtub. She was going to ready those crappy _Supernatural_ books on Amazon and laugh at the bad writing and then go out and hack the Pentagon or something. 

But Dean knew enough about destiny and frigging fate by now to know the her monster magnet thing might not be nothing, and even if it was, Boltar the Furious was probably going to do his tree of pain thing again this time round; finding that spellbook on eBay was going to be a bitch–

She was standing right next to him. 

Dean jumped. "Uh, hi," he said.

"Hi," said Charlie. She wasn't in costume today, and she was twisting her hands together nervously, warily, and she looked _so young_...

But she was _there_ , she was alive, and she was smiling cautiously at him, and Dean felt like the sun had just risen in his chest. He fumbled with the paper plates and pushed over a hot dog. "I, uh, thought you'd be hungry. Because... lunchtime." 

"Thanks." She took the chair awkwardly, and kept on the other side of the table, but she wasn't checking the food for drugs or getting ready to run. She looked kind of awed, actually, and was twitching the way she always did when she was bursting to say something. He had a pretty good idea what.

"So you liked them?"

She burst out, "In what _epic awesome_ universe would they make _three_ Hobbit movies?"

He grinned hugely, basking in her sunlight, and shrugged. "Sequels make money. All the rage when I come from. They had like the fifth Terminator movie out in 2015. And a reboot for Star Trek and three new Star Wars episodes."

Her eyes got huge. "Did you bring them too?"

"Sorry, kiddo, you'll have to wait like everyone else. They weren't all out yet when I left."

She deflated, and letting her down, even for something that small, made Dean's guts twist. "But hey, you got the ones you wanted most, right? I figured CGI like that would be the only thing you'd believe I couldn't possibly fake," he said

"I figure if you could you'd be cashing at Weta instead of playing me for a noob," she replied. "So... yeah, I guess I believe you. But time travel? Dude, why would you want to come back to 2005? FYI, nothing's happening." She paused. "Or, was something going to happen? Did you come here to stop it, Reese?"

Dean tried to keep his face blank. "Uh, yeah. S-something like that."

She frowned. "So something happened to me."

 _Fuck_. He'd forgotten how observant she was. And he didn't cover fast enough either; she saw something on his face, enough to make her sit back, reeling. "Geez. Do I want to know?"

" _No_." He shuddered– _bathtub_ – and shook it off. "It's never going to happen, _ever_ , I took care of it. You're safe."

She looked shaken, and curled back in her seat. "Okay, this was fun up till now."

"I'm sorry," said Dean, and he scrubbed his face, kicking himself. "I didn't want to scare you. I _promise_ it's okay. Trust me."

"Dude, I don't even know your name."

He blinked. _Oh. Right._ "Um, Dean. Winchester."

"Nice to meet you," she said, but she was back to the nervous hand-twisting thing. "So we're like, friends? In the future?"

"Yeah, uh, you were... you were my best friend," he told her. "We didn't get to hang around often, but when we did, those were the best days I'd had in years. I could always talk to you. You..." How to say it? How could he possibly sum up _Charlie_? 

"You never judged me. You called me out on my shit and talked sense into me when I was being an ass. You made life fun again." He shook his head, happy and hurting and feeling his throat lock up as he smiled fondly, at her and at her memory. "You were like the little sister I never had."

"And I died."

He flinched. "God, I'm sorry, I didn't want you to know that. Look, Charlie– Annie, whatever, do me a favour," he asked, and he found himself leaning forward, this close to taking her hands and begging. "Whatever you do, do _not_ go looking for quests. This ain't Tolkien. If something's weird, get the hell away from there. _Towns_ away. Before it's too late."

Her chin trembled and Dean broke, and reached for her hand. She didn't snatch it away, and touching her ( _real, alive, safe_ ) calmed the panic in his gut a bit. He breathed easier. He could do this.

"You're a hero," he said quietly. "Always have been. You saved my ass over and over again. But you're the hero who's _smart_. I've seen you do amazing things with computers and codes, stuff I could never do, stuff we needed you for or the world would've ended. You're our Hermione. But you're _not_ a sword or gunfight kind of badass," he said, dead serious. "There's always someone bigger and stronger and someday, you'll lose. Don't put yourself in harm's way."

She sucked in a sharp breath, shaky and angry at once. "So, what? I'm supposed to wait around to be saved by guys like you? I'm never going to level up, is that it?"

He scoffed. "Bullshit, you're already, like, fifty levels ahead of me. You're a genius, and a better person than I ever was. I'm asking you to _stay safe_." His voice broke. "Please. Don't make the sacrifice play, it is _not_ worth it." _I'm not worth it._

She was scared. Her eyes were huge and she was shaking so much that if they weren't in the middle of a hundred cosplayers acting out dramas someone would've called the cops by now and _fuck_ , he'd messed this up completely.

Almost. Up side was, she wasn't scared of _him_. She clenched his hand with all the strength in her thin white fingers and breathed raggedly in and out a dozen times until she got a lid on it. It took a couple more minutes before she could put together a sentence again. No control + alt + deleting her way out in the real world. Maybe she'd take it as a hint. 

Or she'd take it as a challenge. She wouldn't be Charlie if she didn't try. Dean groaned inwardly and kicked himself again. Why'd he ever think talking to her was a good idea? He should've stayed away, kept tabs on her and stomped out anything that smelled like a case before it got close to her, anything that she wouldn't be able to stand by and watch. He should have stayed away.

Yeah, that was never going to happen. This was _Charlie_.

Except... she was Annie right now. Or Celeste. Someone, but not his Charlie. She didn't remember him, or LARPing in Moondoor or hanging in the bunker or anything, and that hurt almost as much.

"Look, Yoda," she said, slowly taking back her hand, "this is a _lot_ to take in."

He sighed. "I know."

"I do believe you."

"Thanks," he said wryly. 

She nudged his arm. "You know, you really should've started with 'I'm Dean Winchester, I'm here to rescue you'," she said, and he cracked a grin. That would've ended with her running the show a lá Leia anyway, and they both knew it. She would always be his queen. "Anything else I should know?" she asked. 

His smile faded. _Your mom's never going to wake up_ , he wanted to say. _The accident wasn't your fault and you've got to stop blaming yourself for it. I don't want you to cry._ But Dean knew enough about dealing with your shit to know she wasn't ready yet, and this wasn't something that could kill her. 

He was quiet too long; she got nervous again. Trying for light, she added, "Come on man, the fate of the universe could rest on this question: Did they _ever_ reboot Firefly?"

A sort of strangled laugh burst out of him. "Nah, but Whedon made an Avengers movie in 2012. It's awesome, you'll love it."

"Cool," she said, nodding and working hard for casual. "Maybe if I start on my costume now it'll be ready in time for the premiere."

He could just see it. "You'd be a great Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson plays her, you know."

"No _way_. That hot chick from _Girl with a Pearl Earring_?"

And she was smiling again, not over it yet but getting there, and Dean felt some of the knives in his heart fall away. "That's the one. Your future wife, right?"

She went red and squeaked, "You know about that?"

"Told me yourself," he grinned. "I said you'd better hurry because if I meet her first, you've lost."

"That a challenge, Winchester?"

"You bet."

"You're _on_." 

He grinned. It was almost like old times. 

 

Turns out you could even get kicked off tables for a _hot dog stand_ if you stuck around too long. It was dumb, but, well, frak happens. Especially to weird guys from the future, apparently.

Dean was pretty okay, she decided as they wandered round the stands. He was totally a dork too: If the way his eyes bugged out when he found a Dr Sexy action figure wasn't enough ("They don't make these anymore! Do you have any idea what this'll be worth?" "Dude, totally not fooling anyone"), the way he eagerly tried everything she suggested would've proved it. They went by the Car Wars tables because future her had never had a chance to show him real gameplay with models and everything, and they did her usual rounds of the collectibles tables, looking for anything new or fun (pop vinyls were going to be huge in ten years, who knew?). He insisted they give the medieval LARPers a shot and promised she'd love it, and it was kinda fun, even if he turned out to be so scary good with a foam sword that some of the others wouldn't go near him. 

Maybe there was something to this best friend thing of his. Yeah, okay, he was way older than her, almost enough to be her teenage dad, but except for blinking robot-like for a second when the fact came up ("Hang on, you can't even _drink_ yet?" "Not until March. Technically. My ID says I can"), he treated her the same as this future self he'd known, and it was pretty cool. 

Though, he did call her 'Charlie' a lot. He stopped and apologised every time, but after a while she decided she didn't mind; 'Annie' never felt quite right anyway, and there were way worse people to name herself after than Charlene McGee. Maybe she'd be a 'Charlie' next. 

(He said the video game company never would catch up with her, but she'd seen this movie, thanks. If she didn't do now what she did in his future because of what he said, she'd change her future and maybe they'd find her anyway. He wanted her to not take chances? She wasn't taking chances.)

"You want a pretzel?" he asked as they took the right out of Artist's Alley. He was carrying the replica Sting she'd bought earlier in its box under one arm and still had a mega plastic soda cup in the other hand. She shook her head.

"Man you eat like, everything."

He looked offended. "I'm hungry."

"Or a _hobbit_."

He snorted. "Yeah, like you can talk, shorty," he teased. 

She drew herself up to her full plus-bootheels height. "I'll have you know you're just a giant... skyscraper person." Oh, that was lame. He laughed anyway. 

"Whatever, your worshipfulness. I want a pretzel."

"Cinnamon and chocolate sauce for me, thanks."

Dean turned and pulled a face at her. "That's disgusting."

"Says the guy who ate two bacon cheeseburgers on top of an onion hot dog."

"Don't judge me," he huffed, but there had to be some story behind that because he got one of those sad smiles again, and his eyes unfocused for a sec. She nudged his ribs as they took their place in line. 

"So I was planning to hit the game demo stands before you came and McFly'd my weekend. Want to come with? You could tell me which ones to buy shares in," she added in a low voice, only half joking. 

He chuckled. "Sure. You know Assassin's Creed? Is that out yet?"

"Not ringing bells. Is it big?"

"Yeah, pretty fricking big. We played it a couple of times. It was fun," he shrugged, and stepped up to make their order. 

She nodded to herself. Assassins. Cool.

They got their pretzels a few minutes later and started making their way through the crowd. The demo stands were busy, but not too bad; they were usually only crammed when something everyone was waiting for debuted, and Dean was tall enough to see whatever new stuff they had was worth of elbowing their way in for. "You know _The Elder Scrolls_ already, right?" he asked, craning his neck as they passed the first stand.

"Yeah, was okay. I'm not a fan of the whole 'never ending' thing," she said, and shrugged. "Not worth this crowd. Come back later maybe." 

He bit off a chunk out of his over-cheesed snack and nodded, following her to the Nintendo stall. The nerds were pretty thick on the ground there, and he had to stand on tiptoe to see what was being shown off. "Uh... looks like Zelda, I think." 

"Really?" She strained to get a look, going on tiptoe and even jumping once, but crazy tall people and their costume hair made it impossible. "Any chance in Mordor we can get a try?" she pleaded, but knew the answer before he shook his head: This many people in line, it'd be morning first. 

She sighed and took comfort in her comfort food. "Well, PlayStation doesn't look too bad, let's try there. You said there's more Final Fantasy coming, right?" She licked the last of the chocolate off her fingers.

Dean nodded and cleared a path for them towards the next stand. "Yeah, it was up to fourteen, I think? But I don't remember when they came out."

"Probably not today or it'd be packed," she sighed, and rolled up on her toes as they weaved between people to try to see more than just the big banner with the company logo on it. There were posters all over the place, mostly black with zaps of neon colours, but she couldn't guess at what it was until Dean stopped, his eyes lighting up. 

"Dean? What is it?" She strained and jumped again, and got just high enough to see what was going on. This demo wasn't set up with everyone sitting in front of their own screens with a controller and headphones to play on their own: There were only three stations, all half hidden by paper screens, and no chairs. The players were standing with headphones on, and over their heads were big posters saying _Guitar Hero_.

 _Oh_. Oh, he was totally the wannabe rock star type. "Let me guess: This is your favourite game?"

He shook his head. "Nah, never got a chance to try. You need the fake plastic guitar, see? It was too big for either you or me to lug around all the time."

He wasn't asking. He was really really carefully _not_ asking her to stand in line for at least half an hour to play a game that wasn't really her type (and it wasn't, not really, but did he get that the whole point of cons was to geek out with friends? Thought not). She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like fun," she said. "Want to try?"

" _Hell_ yeah."

 

Dean held the imitation Gibson like a shotgun, aiming at the ceiling, fingers poised and ready over the fret buttons, and grinned across at Charlie, who was just putting her headphones on. They were at the back of the three demo areas, mostly shielded from the view of people still in line. He took an extra step to stay completely out of sight. Charlie just shrugged.

"Are you ready?" the PlayStation guy said. "So we've got you on bass guitar, miss, and you have the rhythm," he said to Dean. "Have you picked a song?"

"Yep," said Charlie, flicking her way through the menu until their choice came up: _Summer of '69_. "Ready?"

Dean twisted his shoulders and slammed his thumb down past the plastic strum bar as if there really were stings there, and grinned. "You?"

"So kicking your ass."

The PlayStation guy started the game and went to set up the next pair of players. Dean hunched over his fake guitar as the first notes came up on the screen. The music thumped in his ears and he knew this song, knew it perfectly, knew exactly what it should sound like ( _Da – da-da!_ ) and he fumbled to press the right buttons as the colours flashed on screen. In their headphones, the singing started.

_I got my first real six-string  
bought it at the five and dime_

"Played it till my fingers bled," Dean murmured, trying to keep up. "Was the summer of '69..."

On his left, Charlie was madly pressing every button on the fretboard and he could hear the mess she was making of the bass line. She didn't care; she was grinning and lip synching with more and more gusto as she went along, and after missing half the verse she shrugged and started playing at him more than at the screen, ignoring the notes as the real music thumped along anyway. Dean did the same right back, hitting his strum bar and missing the frets until the last lines of the verse came up and he realised there was a solo coming.

_Yeah, I'd always wanna be there  
Those were the best days of my life_

He glued his eyes to the screen and braced himself for the little coloured lights. Green – top fret – yellow, middle– orange– fuck there were five, did he have to use his pinky for two of them? – and he was already lost and ten more notes had gone by and what the hell, no one could hear it– 

Dean mashed the fretboard and went air guitar without the air, rocking on his feet and bobbing his head as he fake strummed the fake guitar. Charlie laughed and threw herself into the lip sync, ignoring the strumming so she could mime a microphone and silently yell out the big "yeah!" in the second verse. 

(The PlayStation guy was shaking his head at them from the next demo area, laughing. Dean absolutely did not care.)

The bridge came up and Charlie danced around to stand back-to-back with him, both of them still half watching the screen as they faked singing, and through the headphones he could just hear her whisper voice belting with him, "I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no!"

The longer solo came up and Dean gave it another go, focusing on those blinky little colours and furiously pushing buttons until some of them worked, and his fingers started remembering what colour meant to press where, and he _got_ some and beside him Charlie was cheering, not bothering to keep quiet now as he made a whole string without mistakes: "Go, go, go!" she cheered. "Go, go, g–! YES!"

The screen exploded in colour; he'd got some sort of bonus score. _Awesome_. He kept playing and got a few more right, but he'd got distracted by the score and was way off beat. Charlie jumped in and gave it a go on hers even though her bass notes were too low, and their joint score was pathetic, but who cares?

They played on, rocking their tiny fake stage, and when they got to the last chorus she caught his eye and silent sang right at him, "These _are_ –"

"–the best days of our _lives_!" he finished with her, silent and striking a dramatic Jimmy Page pose and she laughed out loud, and at that point the song fizzled out (hey, no fair, the real thing had a long trail-off he could've tried to play) and the music went off, and for a second all he heard was her laughing so hard she was doubled over. 

Dean pulled off his headphones, still grinning but feeling his face get hot as he peeked around the screen to check if anyone saw that. The murmur of background noise from the con was louder than he remembered, a lot louder, and the girls jamming at the next screen were singing along as they played, not synching or whispering like they had been (and completely messing up _Ace of Spades_ too. Dean shuddered).

He shuffled awkwardly anyway, handing back the plastic guitar as fast as he could and grabbing their stuff, but Charlie was still laughing (was something funny? Sometimes she just laughed because she was happy, and he wanted to hear that sound forever), and he had to wait until she pulled herself together. 

" _That_ ," she declared as they stepped back out to the main floor, "settles it."

"Settles what?"

"You, Winchester. You are officially a total dork. That was _the_ crowning moment of dorkdom." She clapped his shoulder. "Congratulations: You're officially one of us."

"Bite me, Tauriel." He felt himself smiling widely. The sun was up.

 

"...so I figured, if this jerk's going to win the election anyway, might as well make sure he doesn't start out a liar. So I just, you know, redistributed his campaign funding for him the way he promised to in the first place."

Dean laughed. "Give or take an extra hundred thousand for the SPCA."

She grinned. That had been the best part of all, even better than cracking the code that got her into their accounts in the first place. She'd arranged to be volunteering in the shelter that day to see everyone's faces when the money came through, and it was _awesome_. People were crying, hugging the dogs they wouldn't have to put down anymore and finger-feeding all the cats a bit of cream. There had been _so_ much hair on her when she got home, but totally, totally worth it. 

"So that was your first big hack," said Dean, drawing her back to the present. "You don't do things halfway, do you?" 

She grinned. "Nah. Boring."

He laughed. He looked, like, way younger when he laughed, and sort of surprised every time it burst out of him; it made her wonder how long it'd been since he'd laughed about anything. 

Until today, that is. This had been one hell of an afternoon. When she'd gotten up this morning and decided to see what this weird guy with impossible Hobbit DVDs had to say, to _not_ run as fast as she could and start hacking a new ID for herself ASAP, she'd thought he'd be some kind of Doc Brown or good Terminator or something; the guy who brought the vital message in the first half hour and spent the rest of the movie giving useful info about ten minutes too late. 

Instead she got the guy version of herself. Well, minus the hacking and from before she'd embraced her destiny as a nerd. And yeah, okay, he totally had the mad combat skills down way better than she could dream of, but hey, spice of life and all. 

(And he'd saved her life. She was totally not thinking about the dying thing because no, brain could _not_ take that, but whatever best buds thing he and future her had had, it'd been enough for him to move time and space for. And maybe that was too intense for her to deal with right now, but whatever future her had seen in this guy... she was starting to see it too.)

"So," she said, tucking the box with her new Sting under her arm as they walked, "we should totally do this again sometime. Have you got tickets for tomorrow? Most of the good panels are gone but the cosplay contest starts at noon."

Dean glanced down, suddenly awkward and sad again. "I, uh, I shouldn't," he said quietly. "I only came to make sure you'd be okay, I... I'm not the safest person to be around." He slowed down, turning to face her, and dragged his eyes up to meet hers. "We probably shouldn't hang out after this," he said, resigned. "I mean, at all." 

That was... wow. Not expected. Totally not in the script. All she managed was, "Oh." 

He hesitated, fidgeting like he was arguing with himself, then started digging in his pockets and said, "Look, if you _ever_ get in trouble, I want you to call me." He pulled out an old business card and flipped it over to scratch out a cell number and address for (she drew herself up on tiptoe to read it) Lebanon, Kansas. "If you need a place to stay or hide or anything at all, come here–" he handed her the card "–and there'll be a room for you. Okay? No matter what."

She took the card and flipped it over. _Agent W. Antilles, FBI_. Of course. Real subtle, dude. Whatever he used this for, he'd better hope it wasn't on hardcore fans, or he was going to need _her_ help someday, and she already knew she was going to give it.

Dean was still watching her, all intense and, under that, worried. Really gut-deep worried. For _her_. It was still weird, only meeting him today, but it made her all warm inside, made her feel not alone in a way she hadn't felt since– in years. 

"You know something?" she said after a minute. She looked up at him. "I've never had a brother before. Thanks, Dean."

He teared up. He tried to cover it by nodding hard like a pigeon and squinting in the light that hadn't been too bright a second ago, and it would've been adorable if she wasn't feeling kind of choked up too. A _brother_. Bonus: a really cool big brother who'd let her drink underage and would geek out with her over sci fi. How cool was that?

Tentatively, she stepped up to him, arms open and curling against his white coat in a little hug. Half a second later he wrapped his arms around her, tight, like a blanket, cradling her head with one hand and carefully resting his cheek on her hair. It was warm and _safe_ and... like home. 

(And he was totally crying a bit. She wouldn't call him out though.)

They stayed that way for a long time, till some Spock wannabe bumped her in a mad rush for the comics stand behind them. She grunted and Dean swung around, tucking her tight against him with one arm, all protective until the box with her new Sting slipped from under her arm and landed on their feet; he lunged to grab it way too late. Totally broke the moment. "Sorry," he muttered.

She steadied the box against her leg and bumped his arm. "Yeah, like that could possibly be the final straw here," she teased, and he lightened up. 

"Hey, don't knock it. Last time I stepped on your feet you mocked me for a week." She snorted and pulled her phone out. 

"I'm sure you totally deserved it. Okay," she said, clicking her way through the menus until she got to Add New Contact. "I will text you my number, and if you solemnly swear that you'll get in touch if my 'genius' can help you out," she quoted, "then if I ever need anything, 'anything at all', I will call you." She turned the phone around for him to see. "Promise."

_New Contact:  
785-555-7901  
Dr Sexy_

He leaned over, read the screen, blinked and burst out laughing. "Thanks, Charlie. I–" He stopped and looked at her for a long second, kind eyes over a warm smile, and said quietly. "I love you, kid."

She smiled back. "I know."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, it turned into a songfic.
> 
> Guitar Hero came out in the US in November 2005, so I'm pushing the dates a bit (a LOT), and [Summer of '69](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f06QZCVUHg) wasn't on the track list, but I was listening to it and realised it is 100% perfect for Dean right now, so bite me.
> 
> I've never been anywhere near video game demos and have no idea how they work, so please forgive me those screwups. I also haven't played Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy and don't know much about them (Wikipedia is my friend until it lies), so sorry for mistakes there. 
> 
> (Dean's wrong about Hermione, of course, she IS a badass with a wand, but he's still never read the books.)
> 
>  
> 
> This is a one-shot, but I plan to have Charlie appear again in other parts of the series, and the main fic, so if you're interested, please subscribe to the series :)


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